"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Thor Comes To Town

SM and I have talked about putting a hard-top roof on our back porch for years.

YEARS, I tell ya! 

Even with the awning, it gets awfully hot back there. 

So SM has been trying over the past few months to get a contractor to come out and give it a "look see" and estimate a price for us.

Nothing. 
No one ever shows up. 
I personally think they only want to come out for the BIG jobs so they don't bother with folks like us.

Anyway, about a month ago, SM was complaining to his older brother Vince (who just happens to be a contractor in south Florida)...

"You contractors are all alike.  I called three of them to come out and give me an estimate..."  SM begins.

"And none of them showed up, right?"  Vince concludes, laughing.

Low and behold, out of the blue, SM gets a phone call from Vince this past weekend.

"How about I come up this week and we kick this out?"

(Insert the sound of angels singing)

So Memorial Day morning, SM and I got busy and took the awning down.  We thought that would be a half day effort.  Turns out we had that sucker down in just over an hour.




Wow.  Wide open vistas.






And HOT.  Man, did those deck boards get toasty quick.





"Now I remember why we put the awning up to begin with."  SM said, wiping his brow.

"Gosh!  I can't believe it's happening!"  I said.  "Chuck and Thor are going to kick-ass this weekend!  I can't wait!"  I crowed.

"Thor?"  SM asked.

"Yeah.  If you can be Chuck (The Yard Bitch) than Vince can be Thor (The Hammer God)."  I explained.  "He kinda looks like him too."





(Personally, I think Chuck is kind of miffed that he gets tagged as a Yard Bitch and doesn't have the cool cred factor Thor has.)





Sorry Chuck ! 


Monday, May 26, 2014

Reduced

I shop at Walmart a lot.  

In our area, they are the only "low-cost" store around.  I do still shop the other stores, but only when something I want is on sale.

Same thing with nursery's.  I try to shop around when I'm looking for a plant but (in general) purchasing from a nursery provides you with a much better plant for the money. 

Every Spring, Walmart sets aside a section of it's parking lot for plants.  With the Spring planting season winding down, now is a good time to start eyeballing the leftovers.

I mentioned this to SM as we stood looking at all the plant offerings at Lowe's Home Improvement yesterday. We had stopped there to check prices on deck materials and I was curious to see if they were offering any discounted plants.

Nope.

So we swung by Walmart and as we strolled the aisles, I spotted the red "Reduced" stickers on some of the stressed batches of perennials.

50% off is right up my alley.  SM wanted to pick up some other plants that weren't on sale but I told him to hold off for now.

"Wait another week.  If these don't move soon, they'll reduce those too."

So if you're wondering what $30 can buy you, take a peak.




The most expensive plant was the Peony's for $5 and the least expensive were $1.73 for what SM describes as the "fuzzy daisies."




All in all, a nice batch of flowering plants to add to the front flower beds.




Do you think my supervisors approve?

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Arrested Development.

Guess who's back?




Yep...SM's twin brother...Chuck (The Yard Bitch) is back. 

I asked SM what he thought of Chuck. 

"He looks like he's getting frisked by the cops."  SM said.

So I went out and made one of his legs straight.

"How's he look now?"  I asked the critic.




"He looks like he just finished a spin on the ice at the Olympics.  You know.  Ta-Da!"  He says waving his hands in the air, laughing.

"Geez."  I said exasperated.  "Do I need to bend his leg like he's out there having a smoke?"

"Nah.  Just stick a beer can in his hand.  That'll make it all better."

"Yeah?  Well you better get busy and suck one down so I can stick the can in his hand."

"Now that I can do.  Go get me one would ya?"

To read more about the adventures of Chuck click on the links below.

Hello Charlie

Chuck Gets a Makeover

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Dawns Early Light

The dogs got me up around my usual time of 4ish today. 

I stumbled to the kitchen for puppy "Snackies!!!" and a quick "Go potty!"  

I even managed to prep SM's coffee pot for his eventual required consumption of three cups before I decided "It's just too freaken early!" and I collapsed into the recliner for what I thought would be a quick snooze.

Two hours later, I sat up blinking to bright sunshine streaming through the blinds and three sets of accusing puppy eyes clustered around the recliner. 

Granted their tails were wagging but I expect their thoughts were something along the lines of "If she doesn't wake up soon we're going to start chewing on her ankles."

"OK, OK"  

I hooked up the crew for a very bleery walkabout and noticed things about our neighborhood that I never see walking in the dark.  Things like fencing and deck projects, front yard floral beautification...Stuff like that.

Afterwards, I wandered our backyard considering my own weekend list of "to-do's." 



Many folks around here go to the Races or run to the beach for Memorial weekend but we decided it was going to be just too freaken gorgeous around here to run away.



Sunshine and barely 80 degrees is a perfect combination to veg out at home.
 
I hope your holiday weekend is a nice as ours is gonna be!




Sunday, May 18, 2014

A Month Behind

My theory that we're a full month behind in the garden continues.  Yesterday I picked our first strawberries.




This is as late as I've ever seen strawberry picking here in the South.  Last year it was an early season and there wasn't a berry to be found by Easter.  This year we'll be having strawberry shortcake for Memorial Day weekend. 

Go figure.

I'll be out today picking an even bigger bowl.  Oh Yum.

Our peas are just starting to bloom.  Usually they're done by now.  We'll see if we actually get anything.  Once the heat comes on the peas die back quick.

Fortunately, everything I direct sowed has come up.  Flowers, Squash and Beans galore! 

We even have a bumper crop of weeds @;)

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Back Porch Thoughts

SM and I have been considering what to do about our back porch deck. 

It's made of wood and (of course) the wood splits after a few years of being exposed to our harsh southern sun.  The portions that stay in the shade of the awning are still in good shape but the ends, where the sun hits it are spilt and cracked.  They were so bad that I was afraid of tripping over them when going down the stairs.




So SM cut a few of the particularly bad pieces out last week and replaced them for the time being until we decide what to do.  Or should I say "Until he decides what to do."

Trex is twice the price of wood and (from what we understand) will still fade in the sun.  We're looking at the "beach gray" just from the point of view that it's the lightest and won't show the fade as much.  But then we waffle and think we'll just stick with the wood. 

If anybody out there has experience with Trex, toss out our thoughts please.

While SM is busy thinking about the actual deck, I've been thinking about the furniture.  Patio furniture is ridiculously expensive.  I just don't get it.  Well, actually I do get it.  Why not charge the consumer a ridiculous amount if you can get away with it.  Patio furniture only lasts so long and cushions have an even shorter life span. 

So me being me, I started to think outside the box and went to the IKEA store in Charlotte.  IKEA stuff usually wouldn't be on my radar.  At least not for the inside of my house.  It's too modern.  But as I walked around considering, I came across the Poang chair and sat down in it. 

Very comfortable.  It's available in several color options for both frames and cushions.  You can get it with a footstool or even buy it as a rocking chair.

I decided to try it with the footstool.  I put it together easily enough while SM looked on skeptically.




SM tends to like to sit on the swing but went out and plopped himself down in the Poang and liked the comfort too.  It's not a chair you would use for sitting at a table to eat a meal, it's more for relaxation and lounging but I thought for $150 total it wasn't a bad option at all.  I think I'll buy it as a rocker once the deck is finished.

We're also going to rebuild the "privacy wall" and use the Super Solar Shield screening fabric to give us some airflow, shade and block the view of the neighbors.




We'll see how it all goes.  And how long it all takes @;)


Sunday, May 11, 2014

Mellow

It's a quiet weekend here.  We've both had a busy work week so the downtime is much appreciated.

We got some heavy downpours yesterday that kept me inside.  The rain was much needed after all the planting we did last weekend.  There's only so much you can do with a garden hose after all.  Nothing beats a good soaking rain.

This morning as I finished up my walk I smelled honeysuckle in one of the vacant wetland lots in our neighborhood.  I picked a sprig to surprise SM with his morning coffee.




Here's a few snaps of from the garden this morning. 




I love it when everything looks neat and orderly after planting.  No weeds.  Pathways defined.




But there is a beauty in the chaos of a garden in full production mode. 




Plants growing everywhere.




Just the thought of harvesting summer veggies makes me smile.




Saturday, May 3, 2014

Layer Cake

There is something so satisfying about tilling the earth.





Kind of like using a mixer in the kitchen for making a cake.  Round and round it goes, churning and mixing and offering up a sweet, soft layer to plant.

I've read pros and cons about tilling and have tried very hard NOT to till.  But we end up doing it each Spring anyway. 
It's just easier. 

Imagine trying to go out and stick a bunch of bean seeds in your lawn.  If we didn't till our inground beds that's what we'd have. 

A lawn. 

Raised beds are best, I guess.  I manage to keep our raised beds fairly weed free with little effort.  But I've found that some summer plants just grow better in the ground. 

So the battle continues each year. 

We'll be heading out later today to plant...Err frost our layer cake. 

Have a great weekend Ya'll!

Friday, May 2, 2014

Prepping Before Planting

At this point in the gardening season, I feel like we're a month behind. 

The spring veggies I planted last month are still small.  Carrots and peas are barely above ground.




We might get to pick leaf lettuce this weekend for salads though.




The strawberries survived the frost but are a few weeks away from cranking out their yummy goodness.  Last year the local stands were closed by Easter so we are very late this year.

We didn't get the predicted rains this week but the weather has remained very pleasantly in the 70's.  So I've been weeding and raking and yoinking weeds and in general eyeballing the state of the in-ground beds.  Still fairly damp and cool soil. 




As an experiment, I planted some summer squash in the ground 2 weeks ago.  It took a week for them to emerge and they are getting their first leaves now.

The most disturbing thing though is the grass seed that blew into last years garden has germinated.  My beds look greener than my lawn.  (sigh)

SM suggested tilling.  I told him "No".  That maybe I could just rake it up.  So that's what I tried to do yesterday.  But there are just too many of them.  So I told SM that he needed to make time this weekend to till. 

Next weekend (if you can believe it) is forecasted to be in the 90's.  There's no way I'm planting a garden in 90 degree heat and if I wait till MID MAY, that would be the latest that we'd ever planted a summer garden.  By the time July hits, the heat has killed off everything except the tomatoes so we both feel it's now or never.




So here we go...Crunch Time! 

Thursday, May 1, 2014

We Have Wormsign The Likes of Which Even God Has Never Seen




Unless you're a Sci-Fi Geek (like me) the clip above won't mean much.

But I've been out working in the garden (weeding...what else) and every time I pull up a blasted weed by the root ball I find worms.

Big, fat, juicy worms.  We must be doing something right!

Ah well...back to Staycation.  Just thought I'd give you an update from the trenches.

(Man this working around the house crap is for the birds.  I'M TIRED.  Can I go back to my other job now?  It's way easier than this!)